This is a most riveting subject, and a most interesting thread. I think there is a little bit of truth in many of the posts so far and I've changed my mind on this one at least five times. The actual print inside the frame gave me the impression of a photograph because of the fine white line like old photos get when they are damaged. That being said, one can take a photo of a drawing and parts of this picture are without a doubt hand rendered including the background and that could very well be a studio backdrop. My impression at this point is that this is likely a studio portrait and that it is in essence a composite with the facial features being the true rendering off a negative and the rest a lot of touch up and very poorly executed outright embellishment. If you'd like to see an example of a turn of the century hand painted studio backdrop, I can show you a large portrait of my great-grandfather and his brother sitting in a real chair, but with a very fake staircase behind them. LOL It was not an unusual practise, clear on up to the forties and fifties for some photographers to take portraits in black and white and hand tint and retouch them in the dark room. It wasn't because of the cameras not being able to, but the studios having the equipment to develop them. So seeing 'sketch marks' doesn't prove anything but the skill of the craftsman who took and developed the portrait because you're just as likely to see the editing on a real photograph as not. I have a portrait of my g'grandmother I'm inserting here because judging by her age it would have been taken about 1918-20. It has been hand tinted, and if you look at her blouse, it has obviously been hand retouched for detail and the bottom darkened out to extend the photo as much as possible to the paper to fill it. I think this is what happened to the boy's dress......it was probably enhanced by hand and the chair by imagination and lack of artistic ability. Even poor people scrounged up the money for portraits in the old days, God knows my ancestors weren't rich people and we have them to pass along. But they certainly were special enough not to be done on a whim. One portrait my g'parents had taken in the twenties was of my little aunt who was expected to die at birth, but lived until two years. So, they coughed up the money, even with ten kids, to have a portrait taken of her. I'm no expert and I'm not pretending to be but before I'd blow this one off as a fake, I'd have it checked out. Regardless of how it pans out, and even if it turns out to be a Cracker Barrel nostalgia shot..........it's a Jim Dandy and worth hanging on a wall just to see the mug on that kid.

There is no telling how many floor 'covering' events the kitchen has seen since it was built. I have ripped up many floor coverings to get to a stable 'base' (subfloor) over which to install the new covering. And these old coverings were installed over many different underlayment materials, from glued down asphalt-saturated flooring felt to nailed down panel products, such as masonite and plywood. It is unlikely that you will find 'oilcloth' under it all, but I have found it during some demolitions. If the original owners did not remove previous coverings when installing new, you could find oilcloth or even early jute-backed linoleum as the first layer. You won't know what you have until you start digging.

BM told me that this paint is their lowest quality premium paint line (Ben). So it's not poor quality paint (SW said theirs was junk not to be used to paint walls.) I've heard some people take them to school theater groups. A crafter might be able to use them too. You can make them into chalk paint or use for decorative objects. If some of the colors are similar, you can mix them all together to paint something larger like a closet.

When I worked for the school district we used to buy rags from Goodwill for the repair shop. T-shirts and towels were preferred but sometimes if not specified they'd give us all sorts of clothes. All the secretaries would come running and go through the rag bags and grab clothes. You'd be surprised what they'd put in there. Perfectly good clothes - often like new and possibly new. But I also have one more idea. Check with your local school's auto shop. Well, any of the shop classes. Wood shop would use them too, most likely. Often use rags for staining wood and as tack cloths for prep work. They may well want them for rags. Help out the schools too. Even electronic repair shops, computer repair shops and the like would likely need them. When I had my shop we always washed down the computers before returning them. Would have really appreciated a bunch of t-shirts rather than using paper towels all the time. Otherwise, I like the mechanic idea too. But I'm sure Goodwill would take them. Possibly Salvation Army. Frankly, don't count out the local Community Action programs. Maybe you don't think they're very good, but if a poor hard-working parent can't afford any clothes for their kids, what you might think is bad could be a joy for them. Don't be embarrassed to ask. I'm sure you'll advise them up-front as to condition and if they say no thank you, that's fine, but you wanted to offer, just in case. Another thought - any small engine repair shops? Hardware store or something? Is there a neighbor who does shadetree mechanic repairs or the like? Your local city or county probably has a maintenance shop for repairing trucks and vehicles who would probably want them too. Save a few taxpayer dollars that way too. No matter what or where they go, it's a nice time of year to think of a donation of any type to any worthwhile place.